10-15,000 thousand of them in a rat's nest maze of a city filled with booby-traps and remotely-detonated car bombs to blow them up as they pass by.

But they're going to kill or capture every one of the 3,000 terrorist killers who think they want to fight the American forces.

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (10)
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It's about time.

I haven't commeted on the war much, both because it makes me sick that so many of our troops are getting killed and because it was starting to resemble Groundhog Day. We threaten an offensive, the Sunnis claim they want to talk, al-Sistani steps in and says let's talk, and then we back down. And then a bunch of our boys get butchered again.

I've been reluctantly willing to give peace and negotiation a chance, but it's been clear for a long time that none of that is working, and that these "negotiations" are just used by the terrorists as chances to retreat, regroup, and rearm.

We just can't stop now. There can be no "pauses to let tribal leaders seek a compromise." That contradicts the entire premise of the Bush Doctrine now. Every time we fall for this ruse, we embolden them, and, oh, by the way, we also sacrifice thirty or forty brave soldiers, because that will the terrorist death toll that follows a few weeks later.

There can't be any let-up this time until Zarqawi is dead and the town is cleared of weapons and hidey-holes. I've been willing to defend Bush's muddle-through impulses before, but enough is enough.

I hope he realizes what effect it will have on our soldiers if we call off the offensive this time around. If I were a soldier, I think that would pretty much demolish my morale. Soldiers know they risk dying in battle, but they don't much like standing around waiting to die as unaware victims of terrorist bombings.

Bush and Alawi had better be serious this time.

Posted by: Ace at 09:40 AM | Comments (15)
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Kinda figures, eh? Actual violence in service of a radical religious fascist theocracy gets excused away by the PC powers-that-be, while the scary-controversial Christian (and, well, universal) ethic "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is considered a vicious bit of racism and a threat to the peace.

Posted by: Ace at 08:26 AM | Comments (4)
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Bumped. Hey, this is old. Ollllld. I think I wrote this the day after the 2004 elections. But it's my favorite thing I ever wrote here. I totally got Trump's manner of speaking down. It's the cadences.

SCENE: A corporate boardroom. Four nervous-looking candidates take their seats at a big table.

DONALD TRUMP enters, flanked by his two corporate lieutenants. He sits across from the candidates.

TRUMP: All right. I gave you all a task to perform. It was a difficult task, but you lost. You had to organize a political campaign, bring your message to the public, energize your base, win over independent voters, and then prevail in the most hotly-contested presidential campaign in fifty years. You lost. What went wrong?

more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:34 PM | Comments (144)
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Hoke Signing Off.

Again, I've enjoyed it and hope to see you soon, though I think I'm looking at an ACC ["Ace Communications Commission"] fine and suspension.

To my peeps. Much love.

To Black Republican. Ham up.

To the Haters and the Traitors. Big D.

To Ace, you my brother from another mother, and I'll never doubt your quals.

And if you want to see what is inarguably the best film of the year, go see Alexander Payne's Sideways.

Yes, I know its the guy from Wings and he's holding a glass of wine.

Trust ole' Hoke.

Best Picture of The Year.

Posted by: Ace at 01:50 PM | Comments (3)
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Hoke here.

The Bush win was fantastic.

But talk about a gift that keeps on giving.

Read Donna Brazile's Slate column.

Tapping Into the Obama Factor

I, too, hail from red America. The people from my native South are not necessarily more racist or less tolerant than other parts of the country. In fact, I find white Southerners to be more candid about their feelings on race and religion. Some of them honestly believe that by discriminating they are doing God's work, and instead of pulling out of the South, Democrats should re-engage them.

Lovely. The folks from her region are not necessarily more racist or less tolerant than those from other parts of the country. Translation -- "Well, they really are, but at least they're straight up that Jesus is communicating to them through their tin foils hats to kill the black man, and dammit, I respect that."

In the rest of the piece, Brazile explains why her family is the best - even her recovering Republican sister - and tosses off a vignette about that sister having her preacher threaten the congreagtion (using the words go to hell) if it voted for Kerry. The story is almost assuredly a lie (it is such a lame trope that I haven't seen it on The West Wing yet), but in the lie, the real truth emerges. Brazile presumes that the South is so hateful, narrow, and racist that just such a tale is plausible -- at least, to the readers of Slate.

Brazile continues:

You see, despite our personal differences on matters of faith and religion, we believe that in order to be good disciples of Jesus, you have to not only know his words but also perform his deeds. That is where we draw the line with those who spend hours and hours in church, only to come out and hate everyone around them.

Translation -- The South is a hellhole, spewing vile hatemongers from the bellies of its noxious churches every Sunday (except for Brazile's "recovering" sister).

And her conclusion?

More Barack Obamas and, I'm not kidding you, that Democrats must speak in a language that allows all voters to know we share their outlook for a strong and prosperous country.

Places like South Carolina and Oklahoma are so noncompetitive that halfwits like Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn can defeat their Democratic opponents even if both congressman were caught buck-naked at a squirrel roast and they wore flowered bathing caps on Russert.

And Brazile's advice?

Keep the same tune, change a few words, and those religi-racist retards will get back on the team that's good for them.

Like I said, the gift that keeps on giving.

Posted by: Ace at 01:42 PM | Comments (8)
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"Bush Victory Infuriates World Press." Cry.

The Guardian sees through its effete British metrosexuality to actually get the message of the election:

"We may not like it. In fact, to tell the truth, we don't like it one bit. But if it isn't a mandate, then the word has no meaning. Mr. Bush has won fair (so far as we can see) and square. He and his country — and the rest of the world — now have to deal with it."

The Guardian still doesn't get that we don't care what they think.

Let me suggest that Guardian readers rent the funny-but-unsatisfying 1994 comedy Swimming with Sharks. America is Buddy Ackerman; European whining lefties are Guy the Intern.

Buddy: What I am concerned with is detail. I asked you go get me a packet of Sweet-N-Low. You bring me back Equal. That isn't what I asked for. That isn't what I wanted. That isn't what I needed and that shit isn't going to work around here.

Guy: I, I just thought...

Buddy: You thought. Do me a fucking favor. Shut up, listen, and learn. Look, I know that this is your first day and you don't really know how things work around here, so I will tell you. You have no brain. No judgement calls are necessary. What you think means nothing. What you feel means nothing. You are here for me. You are here to protect my interests and to serve my needs. So, while it may look like a little thing to you, when I ask for a packet of Sweet-N-Low, that's what I want. And it's your responsibility to see that I get what I want.

Now get us our Sweet-N-Low, Nigel. Shut up, Listen, Learn.

Thansk to Alarming News, who puts part of the blame for Kerry's defeat at Michael Moore's feet (not that he's seen them since middle-school).

I don't know if that's quite right, but hey, it's fun to say.

Posted by: Ace at 12:29 PM | Comments (11)
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Standards and tastes differ, and I guess Hoke's is a little different than mine. I don't think that racy entry should have run, and I apologize if anyone was offended.

Hoke says he's been Dixie-Chicked.* To be honest, I've been looking for the opportunity to chill someone's right to free expression, so everything worked out for the good.

*Kidding, of course.

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (9)
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Hoke here.

With a scoop.

Everybody thinks they have an answer to the $100,000 question: Why did John Kerry lose?

The morals issues.

Too liberal.

Terezzzzza knocking teachers.

Nancy Boy Edwards.

Lambert Field.

I voted for the $87 billion before I vote against it.

All wrong.

John Kerry lost because of his hair. He is Samsonequse figure, and his pompadour is formidable. But improperly maintained, his stately mane became unkempt, and soon, he strangled on that which had been so firm and fine in the past.

You think I jest?

Let's go back to the summer of 2003 and Laura Blumenfeld's sickly sweet paen to the then-candidate.

An odd excerpt put me on the case:

He stands 6-foot-4. He rides a Harley, plays ice hockey, snowboards, windsurfs, kitesurfs, and has such thick, aggressive hair he uses a brush with metal teeth.

John Kerry: Hunter, Dreamer, Realist

Never in the annals of American presidential politics have we learned of the preferred hairbrush of a potential leader of the free world.

Mere color, you say?

Not so.

The morning after the Feb. 3 primaries, which vaulted Kerry into a virtually insurmountable lead, the candidate was fuming over his missing hairbrush. He and his aides were riding in a van on the way to a Time magazine cover-photo shoot. Nicholson had left the hairbrush behind. "Sir, I don't have it," he said, after rummaging in the bags. "Marvin, f---!" Kerry said. The press secretary, David Wade, offered his brush. "I'm not using Wade's brush," the long-faced senator pouted. "Marvin, f---, it's my Time photo shoot."

Nicholson was having a bad day. Breakfast had been late and rushed and not quite right for the senator. In the van, Kerry was working his cell phone and heard the beep signaling that the phone was running out of juice. "Marvin, charger," he said without turning around. "Sorry, I don't have it," said Nicholson, who was sitting in the rear of the van. Now Kerry turned around. "I'm running this campaign myself," he said, looking at Nicholson and the other aides. "I get myself breakfast. I get myself hairbrushes. I get myself my cell-phone charger. It's pretty amazing." In silent frustration, Nicholson helplessly punched the car seat.

Newsweek

And with the loss of that brush, the campaign began to unravel.

Case closed.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (6)
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And pretty much everything else tangentially connected to this two-year white-knuckle roller-coaster ride we just went through. Sort of a Jerry Springer Final Thoughts.

A reader suggested this, and, quite frankly, I'm psyched to have any kind of post going on that doesn't involve too much work out of me. So, what the hell.

I can help keep this thread alive by occasionally "freshening it" and moving it forward in the queue (by manipulating the time stamp), so I guess I can keep this thread in the most recent day's posts until, I don't know, there's not much interest in it anymore.

It's been a long campaign. Thank heavens it's over. I was getting kinda ragged at the end there.

Posted by: Ace at 08:18 AM | Comments (45)
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